Comment: traditionally favours small cars and does no justice to premium and sports cars, but European COTY is still the most recognized award around the world because it has the best cars involved. Voters are sometimes national-biased, but even so they are open-minded enough to elect Nissan Micra and Toyota Yaris. Winning this award usually guarantees success, but sometimes not, e.g. Fiat Brava/o, Lancia Delta and, oh my God, NSU Ro 80.

Comment: in the country giving birth to Sony, high-tech cars are always preferred. Another finding: every generation of Civic seemed to be a default winner while Corolla - the best selling car there - never took an award. K-cars also seemed being ruled out.

Comment: this is a rather new award, but it becomes decreasingly important as America builds more trucks than cars now. They don't have much choices.